Experiments in music and life

Long ago at art school I learnt this lesson - treat everything as an experiment, and then failure is banished. What great freedom that gives us! I've stuck to this with some notable exceptions - "sorry my darling, the last twenty years was a lovely experiment but... " being a phrase I never uttered. Rules that are simple are more durable and more readily useful, I found. Apparent opposites are rarely actually opposite, depending on the viewpoint you occupy at the time. On it goes.

Keep 'em coming Derek, always a pleasure to read (and listen to) your musings.

Brilliant. Been thinking about this for the last three weeks, while playing my Bass. For instance, creating my own music scale.

These tips are really helpful, especially during a creative crisis. Thanks you!

"I’m glad I know how to re-harmonize, because there are melodies in my past I can’t change, but I can change the thoughts underneath." Wow! WOW!

Making analogies between music and life will always have my attention -
Though I'm distracted (in a good way) by the fact your phrasing and accent has a striking similarity to the talented animator, Mark Parsons - well, to a British person anyway, www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wlnqLx1hDs&t=311s
Always enjoy your thoughts,
John :)

Hey Derek,

How awe-inspiring and incredibly appealing, this article is to me. I love your view on "self-image"! Isn't that what life is about? Also, this builds character and in some cases, charisma. You totally have a very appealing self-image. I think now, I have built up my self-image somewhat along the same path! After being in Business since 2007, I've learned a lot about myself. Exuding and propelling my character and also the confidence and self esteem, I've strived so hard for. Kudos to us Buddy! It's been one heck of a journey!

Baran

My music and Artist Profile can be found here:
http://www.reverbnation.com/baran9

You'll here my long-time running and current Hit Rock Song 'Night Cries By Baran', which has been in the Top 40 for 4 years now on Vancouver Rock Charts via ReverbNation.com. It's a dreamy Rock Song that will ignite your passion and warm your heart.

'Night Cries by Baran' is available on CD at:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/baranmusic2

Have a beautiful Rockin' Day!

Baran
(C)2007-(C)2019 Baran Opus Music
All Rights Reserved

Bang on Derek, I would also advise what Andy Warhol said to Lou Reed, "Why so lazy, why not write a song a day?"

LOVE THIS! Your blogs are always inspiring. I'm wondering when your new books will be coming out. Anytime soon?

All best,

Lisa

"The goal is still to see what happens, so there’s no way to fail."

Spot on.

For me, my only failure is when I refuse to participate.

Hey Derek,

You are touching on a raw philosophical Pandora’s box of nerves and issues, keep going.

It feels you are sharing your dilemmas as open source ideas and experience descriptions, laudable, and liberating for others, I am sure.

You and others could still explore the no programme direction?
Adyashanti, PW, Ramana Maharshi (Advaita)

Or the Ron Wildego approach (invert all models as a freedom discipline). See the site I created - ronwildego.org

No rules can lead to more appropriate rules. In music I found that simply exploring improv with purely intuitive evolution of structures led to my very distinctive style. Thousands of piano improvs. But I did not choose the rules, they chose themselves for me.

I so appreciate your breadth of thought and community sense.

Best, Lawrence Ball

I like this post! Gave me an idea how i can approach painting/drawing, something i'd been nervous about for a long time. It feels overwhelming when i have expectations. But when i perceive it as an Experiment, hey, that's a big load off my shoulders! All of a sudden, it's open doors!

Totally. Also, There is nothing sadder than some musicians who come to the studio to work with me, they play me something spontaneous and genuine and then they decide it's not sounding enough like their favourite bands or like a genre they aspire to sound like...they say something like " oh..no that's going to much in that direction"..Oh..it's too this or that, it's not enough blah blah". Sometime they destroy originality and organic artistic output trying to reach a vision that after all doesn't belong to their inner art. Aaaaaahhhh, damn.
Creativity and Identity are tough to balance.

Awesome, timely post. Thank you!!

Great Derek. Love your perspective always.
Awesome dandelion sketch too!

Best,
Johnny

Very smart point, Derek, I am also a big proponent of in-between approach to my music and my life in general, which feels the wisest one to me!

Hi Derek,
I think life it's self is an experiment. We try, we fail, we change what we do for something that works. I believe that if you love something you don't quit till one succeeds. That is strength.

Thank you, Derek. This came at a perfect moment. I’ve been stuck for years, playing the same cover songs while busking and playing gigs.

Now I’m remembering why I started playing in the first place. To play! To experiment, have fun and see what happens. I’m writing more than ever, and it feels right.

Someone said “depression is a lack of expression”. A great reminder we should always try to express ourselves the best we can.

Hello Derek how are you? As always II love your article.
To me Music is pure passion and I love playing my piano. I am a compulsive composer. I fell somebody is telling me what to do and I just play and crest the peace instrumental or with líricas.
I am 64 years old I am fell If possible, I will need at list more 50 years here on our Planet to write all the Music I receive.
Any way as Depaak Chopra says” we don’t have a beginning or an ending.
That’s why I Love that article you wrote.
We can experiment eternally in our Music.
Thank you very much for posting.
When you have a chance please visit
www. marcosariel.com
Best Regards
Marcos

Hey Derek - love your thinking patterns. You always surprise us with a little cognitive twist, mirror reflections on the other side - love it...!

Why do not you put the results of your musical experiment on line?
All my music is here on my site at sive.rs/music — Derek

This is really great and resonates with me as a musician, Derek.
I also just want to thank you- Back when you owned CD Baby, you featured an album of mine on the site. It was discovered by a music programmer/Latin percussionist the UK and played on the BBC. I was brought over here to tour a couple of years ago. I'm actually living in London (well...until the visa runs out- haha) and playing music full-time. I just wanted to say thanks for being an innovator, supporter of music and continuing to share your gifts.
Cheers,
-Jen

Derek
First I am glad you are doing your music. That must feel good. I totally agree as what one learns in their creative field, applies and is just like life.
As a painter and a teacher, Like you my art and life are inseparable. I have learned lessons from my art and what I have learned gives me ways to go in my life. Take risks, experiement, work on ones' mistakes to create new ways to go, don't throw anything out - you might be able to re-work it later. Pay close attention to everything around you - focus and take your inspiration from what you pay attention to. etc. etc. Your thinking has always interested me. I look forward to hearing more. Sorry for the jumble of words but I am sure you get the gist. Life and art - Art and life. Cheers for you, Carmen

Have you tried reading Nietzsche? The message is : build your own set of values.

Your flower drawn with music notes is beautiful and VERY creative.

Nice thoughts! Thanks Derek!

Definitely on-point and inspiring. I always thought as creativity as putting order to chaos. By experimenting in life (and music), we get closer to the chaos source and we find new way to structure it.

Derek-

Thanks for sharing this. It is well articulated. I have done this with my photography. Placing the limits of only using one focal length, allows my creativity to soar because I am not bogged down with making the decision of which lens to use! Thanks for sharing.

On another note — the timing of this email was perfect. I have just published my first novel. I did what Seth says to do “ship” it. This novel has been on the “shelf” for years and now I feel open and vulnerable. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to have released it and excited. Anyway — I was thankful this morning to get your email. Have a great day!!!
ukalexander@gmail.co — Derek

Enjoyed this Derek. May I ask what are your techniques for stretching time? Thank you, Greg
Deliberate intensity. Working/Deciding as quickly as possible. No distractions. Only 1-minute breaks. Etc — Derek

This was inspiring and perfect timing. I have just been given an assignment in my doctoral program to modify an existing leadership theory and propose a change or extension to it. To me, this is just like Derek experimenting with his music except that I get to experiment with my theories. Very helpful insight.

I love this! Every time I come back and your blog continues to blossom in features and insights. I find your suggestions to be golden nuggets I will implement into the completion of my album. I love your playful perspective and approach. As always, thank you for sharing your beautiful insights so generously!

Love the dandelion seeds as musical notes :) Reminds me of my clarinet lessons as a child before football blew out my lower lip :(

Thank you.
This reminds me of the Distorted Mirror idea you posted once.
As a "not an active musician anymore", I found this very inspiring and uplifting. Because, as FZ said, "Music is the best".
And so is life.

Your article inspired these thoughts:
Curriculums are difficult, sometimes impossible to change because they’ve been accepted often without questioning their relevance to what is needed. This occurs because it is easier to use what has seemingly worked for years. It is more comfortable, no new lesson plans have to constructed, etc. This is also true in attempting to change any major item in society— e.g. changing our relationship to our environment. New rules, new ways of thinking are needed, but it takes courage and creativity to get there. Debussy was thoroughly trained as a musician and could have easily been a successful second rate composer, but he chose to hear music in a different way and created masterpieces that changed the way we all hear music.
Thanks Jack! (And hey everyone reading this : Jack was my main music teacher at Berklee that taught me all these specific techniques I was referring to! He made a HUGE difference in my life, and was so encouraging.. I'm so touched that he reads my site now, 30 years later.) — Derek

Really like and appreciate the narration. Engaging my sense of hearing—and as many other senses as possible—is important to me. Honestly, with a million “text” messages hitting my inbox and coming at me in my books, etc. seeing that there was a narration here made you stand out and compelled me to “read” your post right now. Listening to narration also forces me to slow down, consume every word, and think.

Also, the tricky thing about “tradition” is that, in fact, it’s never been done before...by you. There’s nothing wrong with looking for new ways to fly, but when you really need to get from New York to London there’s nothing quite like tradition to keep you from coming face to face with the fathoms of the deep. :)

Beautiful.

Oh Derek! I love this! I am listening to your songs and it reminds me of my livingroom in Hollywood where friends came and we shared our songs.
Especially love your Answering Machine song.
Everyone’s comments are fun and inspiring!
The Tribe is calling to me and I feel like Tinkerbell in that the words are inspiring me to stay on the planet a while longer and enjoy the music that flows through my veins. Quiet no more.

I especially loved this part of your blog: 'because there are melodies in my past I can’t change, but I can change the thoughts underneath'! Absolutely fabulous words.

I attended a 3-day music industry event over the Halloween weekend and left there clearly with the thought of making it up as I go along. Each seminar I sat through regurgitated the same old formula for making and marketing music, and it left me cold. I like your idea of experimenting. My current music feels very experimental and I think this is where I need to be right now.

Great post! Thank you for the inspiration.

This reminds me of Danger Mouse's Grey Album. As challenge to himself he took the acappella tracks from Jay-Z's Black Album and created new soundtracks to them made entirely from samples of The Beatles' White Album. The result is brilliant and Danger Mouse himself has talked about how engaging it was to create with such self restrictions.
YES! Thanks for posting this example. I love that kind of experiment! I liked that album - it wasn't *great* but I'm glad he did it. — Derek

Really enjoyed this post. As a musician myself, I often learn things about music that can be applied to my life. Thanks for the inspiration!

When I started writing poetry at allpoetry.com/Liberalintent over a year ago my thoughts were the same about rules. "No one seems to care about poems, especially me, so why not make my own rules and follow them?"

It's been rewarding going with whatever the next word, the next feeling, the next day has to tell me. I still look down on poetry and only take stories seriously, but it was because I took poems lightly that I was able to soldier past my perfectionism and discover beauty.

Back in 1972, in a high school music class, we were tasked with inventing an alternative means of writing music that all could read. How to display the concepts of pitch, volume, tone, and tempo in an understandable way to those who do not read music?

Our class experiment was produced on an overhead projector before an audience of 150 in a small auditorium. The projector showed one line running vertically on the screen. As the teacher scrolled film across the screen, strings of letters began to approach the vertical line in a random pattern, at varying heights and in various sizes. The audience was instructed to pick out a letter, and make the sound when the letter crosses the vertical line. 150 voices, each picking a random pitch, a random volume (rising in volume as the letters got bigger, etc.). Imagine the mixing of MMMMMmmmmmmmmmm and OOOOoooooo and EEEeeeeee rising and falling at different pitches.

No recording of that experiment exists, but I still vividly recall the music. We feared it would be cacaphonous nails on a chalkboard ( we were 17), but it was ethereal, highly emotive, and deeply satisfying.

Derek,
Brilliant! Thanks for your timely thoughts. 😀🙏🏼

Have you noticed how things turn up in your inbox - just when you need them? Thank you x

Good one Derek, as usual.

Nice thoughts. A joy to read. I have a band right now that is totally improvised music. We are free but
we want it to sound good so I guess that keeps us becoming to out to listen to.
Thanks bro.
BC

Beautifully designed
You made my day
Be well
Thank you always, denise

How would one learn about music in this way? Is it useful to start out by sitting at the feet of a master? Or do you really have to learn the basics and build on them?
Oh just start anywhere and go any direction. — Derek

Well, that's what I've been doing for some time now: Writing for an instrument with only five notes, the five string kantele! And the accompanying it with different instruments. My first CD "The Runaway Kantele" is being distributed by your old baby, CDBaby, and soon my new equally experimental CD "The Krazy Kantele" also will be distributed by them, in case you want to listen (skip the first track if you want to avoid a melody that's a bit over-traditional - it's a kind of a joke :) ). Thanks for this post. It really hit me!

Thanks, Derek, excellent post. As an artist, if what you are creating is honest and true to who you are and what you want to express, and what's in your heart, you really can't go wrong. You can learn from the past and apply what you want to do, but you should always be true to yourself. Experimentation can be fun in and of itself, but to me, it is always best when you're trying to find solutions. Re. how you apply all of this to life in general, I think that's brilliant. Life is short; we should all be much more courageous.

I'm liking what you're doing with audio. Your voice is great. I also like the simplicity of your web site, every post is just its own page.

Of course your messages are deep and inspiring and I know you read every comment and connect with people. Maybe it's your ultimate behind-the-curtain secret, but tell us about your huge database where you have notes about everyone and any conversation you've had with them. (I don't know, maybe we shouldn't know about that. It might seem creepy to some, but you're just using technology to enhance your brain capability. It doesn't bother me. It's super impressive.)

Keep on putting your art out into the world! You're making a difference in a lot of lives.

Rex

And I like that musical dandelion image too.
Thanks! Read about the database, here. A “contact manager” like this was quite typical 20 years ago, but I think they fell out of style when everyone just started depending on Gmail and Google apps instead. — Derek

Most developments that have eventually taken root or become "things", came about through someone trying something new. Experiments are surely the bedrock of progress.

Sure, most experiments may not come to fruition, but with persistence, each provides a closer clue to something better. Even a way to do something "right" probably took countless "wrongs": that's how we humans roll isn't it? It's also why progress in some areas takes a lot of time and effort.

However, with the coming merging of A.I., blockchain, 5G Internet speeds, biology, medicine, advanced tech, and the Internet of Things, we humans can probably expect so many intractable time consuming problems to get solved faster, quicker, better. Allowing more people to focus on creative human pursuits like music, poetry, drama, writing, etc.

Love the podcast feature!

Derek, to me, through this you're hinting at a new, liberating, educational curriculum for the entire human race.
Many of my best projects so far are like cousins to your suggestions.
Count me in as both potential faculty member and eternal student if you ever want to manifest this!

Use traditional for the framework and drape it with nontraditional to see what fits.

Love love love this. Reminds me of something I learned in acting: Know the rules so you can know when you're breaking them.

Love.

Sounds sensible.
My mind goes to art, both 2-D (on my walls) and 3-D.

While I am proud of my subculture, and my heart bleeds for my ancestors, I refuse to go by "should" and "traditional" and "supposed to."

Freedom to create starts with self-permission to create, which starts in my heart and between my ears.

By the way, (Jack at #33) I still remember where I was when I first heard Debussy. Wow, such beauty.

art an musoc come from spirit world thru us..u are coming from intellect..it apoears to me

like cd baby..dont tk how an why u started it can be explained..
u were the vessel for its birth! evolution needs souls an we often havent clue why us .!🤸‍♂️😊

whn a ballet or opera ballet fly thru me..complete..or i paint a picture an dont even know names of colors or my older brother at age 5 built a telescope..intellect is sleepin on job an muse of creativity does its 'thung'..

as famed psychologist carl jung says in his book 'memories dreams an reflections' the damion of creativity has control and he is temporarily 'divinely mad'..🎵🎷🎨🎶🎺🎹🎻

After 10 years I am returning to music and I fee this same sense that you really can experiment with the whole approach to music. Right now I’m open to all sorts of new approaches. But Derek, don’t talk about it like music is in your past. Include thinking of yourself as a musician part of your experiments.

That's a marvelous way at looking at it. It's the same ideal I use to compose music. It's all about balance.

Wow that's exactly what we'do as expermiental musicians, we have the same approche about music !!!See rabbit and stutz on youtube !!! We mostly record everything we do on audio tape then seek for what is mostly unique and interresthing about what we do and evrytime we reinvent ours self and go further in devellopement !!! Not everything is greath but we dont put a limit to our passion tryen to please others and haven hard auto critique otherwise there would be no pleasure !!! for some we are dairing we stop on what is good or wrong but we permit our self to explore the univers of sounds with our instinct !!!

Love this message... this is exactly what I did to refine my composition skills.
-AK

Love the no fail philosophy behind your experiments. Even greater, continued curiosity seems to be the underlying theme here. I’ve been stuck for the last three months not knowing what to do next. After reading this piece the answer is clear... experimentation. To feed curiosity again. That seems to be the fuel for living a fulfilling life. Once again, really appreciate you sharing your wisdom.

I love this sentence "You make up your own rules, and apply them to a piece of music." I am currently doing this is the experimental 1 minute films I am making. I have the freedom to experiment and I also have the structure provided by the rules I made for myself. I had a lot of self-doubt but I am grateful for your article because it has validated my process. Thanks!

I love that you reharmonize your life! I was wondering what your techniques are to stretch time. I find that idea very interesting. I’m caught still in the hustle of Hollywood and I realize as I enter my 4th decade time is so limited and I want more it under my control.

Derek since you do this blog on Music. Here I send you a sneak peek, an artist tribute video, that will be used in the Eurock DOC film. I think Fizze, a Swiss musician friend since early 1980 fits into your ideas in this podcast. He's got a new album coming out so which is amazing...

Here is the link to view it: youtu.be/sU0PJn3t6Ds

Enjoy ☺

This would have been very helpful when struggling in music school fifty years ago, trying to emulate a Bach invention. I am glad that I learned how to do it but the concept of 'making up your own rules would have been most welcome.

"I’m glad I know how to re-harmonize because there are melodies in my past I can’t change, but I can change the thoughts underneath." Super deep analogy for life, this is brilliant!

I love these little blogs and audios, thank you Derek!

This is how I live, too, Derek. I experiment with life and I take notes. My journal is my lab notebook.

One life-changing experiment was giving up junk food, but only for a year. Can you guess what happened? Two months later I felt so good I never went back. That was more than ten years ago. :)

Hi Derek
What a beautiful article! I will try to apply your thoughts to my own compositions. I only wish I had more time available to devote myself to composing.

Thanks Derek, I have been around different music esthetics in the last 50 years, in total free improv for the last 20 years, some place where fuck the rules its the feeling that counts like John Coltrane said you play all twelve notes in your solo anyway.
I can see in your post stuff that I can relate to.
Music is what I wanted to do since I was a kid and I am doing it, give it your all is whenever I find myself making music.
Sorry to end with a pathetic cliche Music is my Life..
All best always

Hey Derek,

This article truly resonated with me as it reminded me of a Stravinsky philosophy on composing that I've followed for years.

I studied music performance, composition, and arranging at Berklee College of Music in Boston and later tackled deep instrument studies at the Musicians Institute (then known as the Guitar Institute of Technology) in Los Angeles. While attending GIT, one of the instructors, the late Bryant “Mac” McKernan, held regular classes on the major composers of the 20th Century. During my time at GIT, “Mac” and I became good friends and we spent countless hours listening to the music of these giants and we had many late-into-the-night talks about these composers. At one point, “Mac” introduced me to “The Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons,” a book authored by the late 20th Century composer, Igor Stravinsky. This book is from a series of lectures given by Stravinsky himself at the Charles Eliot Norton Lecture Series at Harvard University from 1939 to 1940.

The philosophy from this book has resonated with me all these years:

“My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self of the chains that shackle the spirit.”

Thanks for the article.

Amazing stuff!

nice :)

What's the source for that dandelion picture? I love it!
I'd like to share it but wanted to ask for permission and credit the artist.

Thank you Derek, The Mad Sonic Scientist!
Zappa followed this line of thinking but, like you said, he was too free. I think George Martin capsulized what you're trying to get across, very Masterfully! I always Love to hear your thoughts Bro and here's a gift for you:

ROCK'S BRAND NEW SOUND; DARE TO LISTEN!
www.amazon.com/Reaper-Cometh-KingsXecutioner/dp/B07ZLK68ZH/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=The+reaper+cometh&qid=1573142397&sr=8-3

Overcast has now also been added to your list of podcast players. I‘ ve been wondering about that- too commercial?, Stitcher was new to me, but really cool.

Interesting Derek!!!.. I remember reading in the book " The Artists Way" that sometimes just the act of writing on paper, and starting the process, leads the brain into forming structure and patterns and ideas. I think it's like a muscle... (it is for me anyway as a songwriter) the more you use it, the more it presents itself.
i believe that the creative energy is all around us and the "experiments" and new approaches are how so many great artists, scientist, painter, poets, discovered new ground.
Happy Experimenting in all areas of your life may you find joy and fulfillment!
TINA xo

Derek, as a fellow musician I really enjoyed this. I volunteer with Todd Rundgren’s Spirit of Harmony Foundation promoting music education as a moral imperative. Check it out. You may want to get involved too. Thanks for all that you do! Take care,

Major

Besides an experience, music for me is Awareness, consciousness and a path of learning in the universe. In case you want to visit one of my Cdbaby :
store.cdbaby.com/Artist/AnayaMusic

Loved this! Your posts always make me think.... like for DAYS. I don't know if you've ever taken the Myers Briggs personality test, but I think you might be an INFJ?

Great ideas Derek! Indeed creativity can benefit from some level of structure, else the infinite options presented by the blank page can leave one paralyzed.

In writing my last album, the producer and I would start with a feeling, then create a “vibe” with a riff and/or chords, and then build on top of that. The rules we had were that in order for something to make the record, it had to be something we’d never heard before, and it also had to be so weird that it made us laugh out loud 😂

You can see/hear some of the resulting madness here:
www.setheon.com/epk

Seth(eon).

Another fine approach is to have sort of a stable Bass line and full improvisation around that. Surely can be applied to life as well !

very inspiring,
i have been thinking to quit my settle job just to claim my freedom
yet i doubt it, cos somewhere else in my heart seems keep whispering me that is not true,
then the compromise for this situation is, to find a part time job
so i still have enough money from my son's study yet i have enough time for me to think other think
have been weeks, i suddenly think, that am wasting too much my time for my job, my 9 to 5 job, i know i love my job, but i also still have a dream to build my own company, which is i have fail many times in this, yet i still think this not the time to give up, (i almost 50 right now ;-) )

so this writing is just like the answer of my problem
that you can have freedom with totally free

Love love love this. And yes, pushing the edges and expanding in unexpected, asymmetrical ways is the very best. Thank you again for this lovely metaphor. I would add that another thing I like to do in this world is to make micro adjustments to experiements. So if something is working mostly, or not at all, sometimes just making a tiny adjustment can have a huge impact.

Thank you Derek! Have a glorious day! Also, loving your podcasts!
Cheers,
Nina

I really like the idea of experimenting with music and applying the same kinds of experimentation to life.
I especially love the idea of harmonizing but in life...Not being able to change past melodies, but the thoughts underlying them. POWERFUL.
Thank you!

I resemble your remarks, my friend! However, the last line left me with a distinct question... And to your point, perhaps I am too dependent on rules from the past, in this regard, but, I remember hearing that if there is no way to fail, then there is no way to succeed, either. Or, perhaps, from what you are saying, "success," in the traditional sense of the word is not the objective here. What do you think?

We have exactly the same approach to writing music :)

I love the way you think, and I share many ideas with you. I'm a jazz musician and you described very much what it's like to take a solo on given chord changes.

I agree about not being able to fail when improvising, and yet success doesn't really stick around - we need other successes through our lives (or at least I do) besides artistic ones.

Thanks for your writing - it's always truly uplifting.

Sincerely,

Jan Leder
www.janleder.info

Hi Derek,
Thank you for this post! It is causing me to think about how I go about composing and playing music. You are always inspiring.
Be well,
Joe D

I like the audio player format, also I do experiments with my music

I really enjoyed this article and quite the concept, I might add. Have a great day, my Friend..

I like how you touch on the 'paradox of choice' here. It's an underrated concept. Too much choice can actually supress art.

So true it’s great to try new things and re-invent yourself
I’m learning to orchestrate , a big challenge but fascinating !!

I liked your comment about too much freedom. the challenge is to get a balance between adventure and routine - a tough one indeed.

I have found over my long career( I'm 80) that I have allowed myself no boundaries to my detriment. I have written pieces in all genres, but what has it brought me. I've written successful jingles: "Switch to Ralphs, scored somewhere near 100 Christian films including "Believe" the Rich de Vos story, Broadway musicals: I have 3 on my website www.spiritunes.com and many other genres, but I find myself on S.S. and a small pension wondering where my life went. Keep up the great work.

Interesting. I listened and read along. I think I was expecting to a hear a few bars of your musical 'experiments' between the pauses or in the background... what does 2 instruments and 5 notes sound like? What does a song with kids toys sound like? In my hands it would be an awful cacophony of noise but I'd love to hear what a musician could do with a Rainboshaker and rattler ;) Just a thought... perhaps add a little musical texture.

Also, as always, this was a thought-provoking piece, but my initial reaction was panic. Just the thought of thinking about changing or experimenting with how I do things made my pulse quicken! I can only speak for myself, but the reality of the fast-paced world we live in it seems overwhelming to do things differently all at once... I guess bite-size experiments would probably be a good idea to see what shakes out!

Sandra

Its always interesting to hear how people approach composition. It says a lot about how they hear music, what it is they are trying to get out the music they create and what their priorities are. Most often, peoples methods seem alien to me, that is, I would seldom approach things that way but I like to see what they're doing and like they are enjoying themselves with their process.

Since I write multi-genre music, it means that I listen to a LOT of music in all genres. Not just passing through but living with the pieces so that I know them intimately and in some cases be able to write them out from memory.

So when I approach omni music it is a synesthesia of sorts, all elements are allowed in all dimensions with the caveat that it HAS TO WORK. The has to work requirement nearly always creates the strictness and boundaries for each piece. And originality is unavoidable unless one wants to write in other peoples ways.

So if you listen to what you think is high quality music by a great writer or composer, among their writings there will be moments of high torque and quality. There will be great moments which produce endorphins!! In baroque the counterpoint, depth, emotion, organization and fantastic hooks produce special moments. In rock and metal, the force, physicality, beat dominance, energy and great hooks make the special moments. In ambient synth music the velvety, granularity, delicious harmony, texture, spatial dominance and great hooks produce special moments. All through every type of music there are factors that produce the best that each type of music shines in.

So Omni music would be a marbling of the best of all of these approaches. The measure of whether or not they are working is if they are producing endorphins! The objective is to have the level of the music as high as possible as long as possible. Pacing is important. You can have a rock-metal texture going full tilt creating endorphins through power. But the brain will only be able to peak on that for so long. Thus you have to pull back to allow the brain to rest and build more reservoirs so as to go back to the power peaking. On the pull back one can then, try to peak in a different way, using dense chromaticism as the pathway to endorphins for instance. One can alternate between the driving force of baroque or bluegrass music with the stop-start halting behavior of Roccoco (classical) music. Jazz as a harmonic language can be melted in to almost anything else and one of the overwhelming things which can bond all of these disparate elements together is an understand of what creates the great moments in these musics and leads to endorphins. The proof of the success is in the degree and strength of the endorphins people get once they have learned the music deeply and know where its moments are located.

On November 11, 2019, the spirit melody 2 will be released and there will be yet more tangible examples of the above mentioned ideas. Its part of the Centrifugal Satz Clock, the 47 hour work that uses these principles as the guiding force for the music!

Hi Derek,
Very interesting way of looking at things. I don't remember the guys name but he suggested recording a whole album on just an iPhone with GarageBand. So now I'm going to take your idea and his and see what I come up with musically. Thanks again for pointing out a different way of approaching music and life in general.

Hey Derek, great thinking, thank you. Filtering options in playful ways is a great way to stop being paralyzed by indecision, and move on with discovery.

Finally getting to some of these readings, which are good reality checks for my own creativity. I often feel that my musical life informs my non-musical life because... let's face it, it's all LIFE. Whether it is dealing with people, technology, organizing, handling difficult situations or whatever - each aspect informs the other.

As for experimenting... that is much of my approach these days with music, having gone from much more scripted, structured music to more free form composition or improv. It's opened up a lot of interactions with people that I never thought would be possible, and has allowed me to explore aspects fo my creativity that didn't fit into Verse/Chorus/Bridge format. That, in turn, has enhanced many aspects of my "non-musical" life.

hmmmmm.......I never thought of approaching music in that way.......fascinating......I'm not sure I could approach my LIFE path in that way because I wouldn't know where to begin. I'm still trying to decipher what you said. I think I would, first, have to get rid of all the little hub bub things that go on in my retired state of mind. I'll give it some thought. Thanks, Derek.

i wanted to share Aureons music he set to my lyrics!!
ANGEL WINGS by Aureon!

m.youtube.com/results?search_query=angel+wings+aureon

Aureon put his music on 'used to be' Derek Sivers CD BABY

Exactly what artists need to follow and think. Just simply make up your own style and experiment with it. It won't be amazing at first but ongoing experimentation will shape it on its own. Dope read Derek can't wait for the next.

I liked the analogy. It is easier said than done. In a society, we are surrounded by so many people who like to live within the defined set. If you visit to any eastern country,there is a tight coupling with traditions, rules and lives. The philosophy is generally transferred into other non religious/cultural aspects of lives also. For example, you should be working in this kind of company, or you should be doing this and not that etc. Though the rules are being challenged by the younger generation, it would take more time to cultivate the 'experimental' mindset completely.

Hi! Great lesson, do a lot with less. When I was in my teenager years i used to play golf and one of the trick my teacher told me was to use only one club. All the time the same club:for long shots, short ones, dificult, easy...

The lesson was to lear how to do be proficient with limited recurses.

Thanks for reminding me with that lesson.

Hi Derek I really like this post and itz good to hear from you

Don't forget about Jay Zeezer:
http://www.jay-zeezer.com/

In response to #38.

My folks would say: "Always have a back-up to your music career". But today I'm walking the tight wire as a songwriter with no safety net. Along the journey I've discovered that a song is only yours for the time it takes to write it. After that it often packs up and leaves home to an uncharted island for a total stranger to discover and call his own. Music can be like medicine that calms the soul. But It can also be like a lost page of life describing in detail your every thought from a private journal. As you say regarding experiments, I have a need to experiment by escape, not to music but from it seeking peace & solidarity even if for only a moment. Yet in that moment I know what a million others also know: Your deepest secrets are all written down in a song.

Your thoughts here remind me of when I was an elementary school and child care level music teacher; there were no rules at times and we could be creative as we wanted.
When I moved to high school and college, as a teacher, I didn't feel as creative because I was forced to teach and play the music as written on paper by the composer.
They say that the arts, including music is for the creative mind. I agree, however it's seemingly more so for the composer rather than the performer.

Derek - because of the detail you put into your book reviews, every couple of months I check into your book review page looking for new material. I suspect I'm not the only one to do this. Maybe a podcast on your reviews would be worth doing?

Absolutely loved this analogy. Experimenting is everything! Thanks for the insight .KVR

I like that approach, I am an active musician and the piece I shared was an improvisation. No set rules except tempo, melody and interplay between instruments. it must make sense to me. maybe others would find it too busy.
Tomorrow may be different !!

Thanks Derek !

Derek,

I think your experiments test what you are made of and, you are learning what you are truly capable of. This is an introspective look at life, your life specifically. It is nice that you are able to make the time to do this. I try to but there is just so much noise in my life. I want to have more music like your life my friend.

Thanks for this perspective.

Too much freedom, good problem to have. Most of my life has been a difficult struggle for survival, and not much freedom. I realized a long time ago that if I had kids, their lives would also be like that, so I made sure I never did. Now that I see how the world has become, i feel like that is one of the few smart decisions I made in my life. This society has declined far more quickly than I expected.
I spent a large part of my life as a professional musician, I actually paid the rent doing that for 19 years. The first 2, I had the help of a very good promoter, and amazingly made pretty good money. Then he left the area, and no longer helped me or anyone else in the Sacramento area. I was left to promote myself, which I was never good at. My income plunged, and I have been dirt poor ever since. I had to start collecting Social Security at 62, which cut my potential benefits in half.
I also tried a lot of experiments, but had I not done so I would have made a lot more money keeping my day job, way back in the 70s. When I am struggling with money issues, I always think of myself as a fool for quitting that job, yet I would have missed out on some very good life experiences had I not done so. Those jobs crush your soul, and I was confident at the time that I could find a better way to make a living. I never did. Instead, I found myself working jobs which were even worse, to survive, and finally was forced by failing health to quit that totally. That was when I started playing professionally.
I think I was successful as a musician, from a purely artistic point of view, but a total failure at promotion, which would have enabled me to have more resources do much more, had I been better at that. I guess there are not many people who are gifted both as a musician and a promoter. IMHO, there are too many who are talented promoters, but suck at actually making music. That might also be a good problem to have, at least you have money, and freedom.
You are so fortunate to both make money, and live your dream. Very few get to do that.

Love this. Hearing the reminder to experiment was timely for me, so thanks!!

I always appreciate how your specific insights are also applicable broadly.

Yes, I’ve done things like this. I’ve set a music tech class the task of making beats in Logic’s Ultrabeat drum sequencer, but only with odd steps, so not their traditional vanilla 4 beats to the bar. I had a lot of people come up and thank me afterwards.

For my first album I challenged myself to make a track using sounds I programmed myself from only one (free) instrument plugin, with the drum sounds from free samples. This was very enjoyable.

I answer questions on music production on www.quora.com. I get royally pissed off with the number of people who want to access cracked versions of commercial plugins, because they’re convinced that the only way to succeed is to have exactly the same tools as somebody they’ve read about. My view is that you need to define your own creativity and make your own tool set, without referencing anyone else - that you should celebrate being different. So another challenge to myself was to make a track using totally free instruments and effects. Again, this was not just enjoyable but liberating. There is a huge amount of resources out there you can access for nothing, often made just for the pleasure of giving something to the world. I like to celebrate people who do this.

Thought #2: am I the only person on here who remembers Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies card set for challenging creative blocks? Examples - ‘honour thy error as a hidden intention’ ‘Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them’
http://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html
In 1994, way-early days of the web, I posted the Oblique Strategies online and for a while was the only place to read them on the internet. Even Wired magazine pointed to my site as the place to find them. I was honored. ☺ — Derek

Wow enjoyed listening to you also listen to your music wonderful thank you

I love the sketch would enjoy seeing that on one of my walls
The image is from here.">www.123rf.com/stock-photo/dandelion_music_notes.html">here. — Derek

Thank you so much! As I was listening/reading, I realized it all makes sense! It reminded me if things I’ve done, wrote and recorded all day and into the night. Using organic sounds, mini wooden shakers into the 5th minute and by the eighth minute, I was using the wheel on my keyboard to make software sounds take flight! Then after spoken word flowing out without a script, “you’ve got everything you need, it’s all right there. You’ve got everything you need in the cement jungle and you’ve got me”. I do have honking horns, trains and “Find a tree, hug a tree” where birds come in tweeting.
Ha ha!!! And the 3 and 4 part harmonies end with the beginning of the Piece, and it fades out with inspirational lyrics layered with reggae horns.
What an experiment, thanks for your support and ideas!!! 🙏🏼💕👍🏼🎶🎶🎶 We can do whatever we want!

Although your not an active musician, do you still play for yourself?

With art my motto is : create, then make sense. So for me the rules come to life after the matter is already there !

Thanks for the post Derek !

Inspirational as always. It is a challenge at times, to color outside of the lines. I'm grateful for the freedom to breakout and follow my heart. As an indie artist I have tried to avoid pigeon-holes. I've stayed true to myself and was recently approached by a label that is okay with me my way!

Thanks for all the encouragement you give to so many.

I completely re-learned my guitar by going totally to finger style from straight picking - it has opened up a whole new world of possibilities when it relates to my music and the kinds of songs I can play without accompaniment. Now I have two approaches I can include in performance and recording. Good article - and remember, everything you do in your music relates directly to your life. It can offer the ultimate freedom.

Wonderful ideas in this post. Here, with Derek's encouragement, is a link to 340+ of my Composition Exercises, many of which are made to make you think in similar new ways: http://www.ahundredquirkylegs.com/

Tobias

"Make your own rules and apply them" - I think this is one of the key drivers of living a fulfilling life

'Principles' by Ray Dalio really changed my thinking. I created a set of rules (or principles) for myself and now those principles guide my process. Every year I re-evaluate them to see if they still make sense and change them accordingly

Love the idea of experiments. It really helps when you're starting out with something new, by taking away self-judgement. Every one should experiment as much as they can to live the life they want.

Thanks for sharing!

Hi Derek,
Bravo to you! Enjoy reading it!
It's very meaningful to me...

Thanks
Gong Qian

Björk once said, "If you don't experiment, you don't get the treats," or something to that effect. Time and again I've experimented with the "wrong" approach, breaking "rules" of composition and inventing new ones, and I've gotten a lot of treats along the way. Rules are for the professionals who must make a living within a defined structure. The rest of us are free as birds.

I share your fondness of 'directives', so I 'd share the ones that this piece reminds me of:

Get started as soon as you can.
Don't make art, make SOMETHING !
Worry less about screwing up, since you're feeding your experiment.

Speaking of experiments, I'd like another installment on your experience of parenting. It is so personal and can be surprising, especially as our children develop their own identities.

Yey! Good one! <3

Derek thanks for sharing. I listened to your voice and followed the text to see if it sticks in or makes a difference.
My first experiment.

This is the best one yet, Derek. Not only does this reinforce all the brief conversations that we have had together, but you have developed those ideas in your very special way.

Thank you for supporting me and my experiments, and always showing me that the answers to my questions are (usually) within me.

yours,
josh

Really enjoyed this email!
The audio part is great, now hearing the content in your voice adds depth and increases the level of understanding. Thanks Derek!

Vent de Guitares

album.link/fr/i/1294603332

This article really made me think. First thought was: a chef can experiment with his dishes, but not when the restaurant is open and the orders are piling up.

I was racing to do my taxes at the time.

Then after I had some time to think about it, I realized my experience is totally opposite to this. I see life as playing on a chessboard. You are faced with making a decision, and you could make several moves but there is only one best move and you have to figure out what it is.
If you don't play that move, then that could screw up the rest of the game, not just for you, but for other people playing on other boards as well. They are playing different games but your actions could mean they gain an extra pawn, or even lose their queen.

I have this idea of life because when I was four I didn't react with enough enthusiasm to a gift I got for Christmas and it haunted my parents for the rest of their lives. My father, who loved skiing, never skied again.
I Was 4.

'Write a lyric using only nouns and no verbs.'

Oh, this reminded me of a song in Spanish by Luis Alberto Spinetta: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS-kuJPKICA

:)

For a comment two spots above:
Thank you for your honest post... Ouch.
My dear Carmen, what children do doesn't count. Call me an artist, but when I was a child some of my outward reactions were the exact opposite of what I felt inside.

Up until say, adolescence, people can be saying later, "I don't know why I said that."

When a child doesn't like something, then I think of the changing weather in the mountains: Wait five minutes (or five days) and try again. I can say this because although God has not blessed me with children, I work in the field of disabilities in Canada, (where the field has status, while disrespectful Yankees are getting the disability workers and schoolteachers they deserve)

Sometimes our parents are too vulnerable, shy or dysfunctional to seek out any second opinion or reality check from any ordinary people, let alone someone with relevant expertise. Then they go for years with no personal growth, and with bizarre ideas.

As for my own parents, if on Monday bartenders got training in psychiatry, and on Tuesday it was in the newspapers, then on Wednesday my parents would be saying that bartenders are all stupid... with the payoff of avoiding counselling.

Risking being counselled is a form of experimenting, where I risk not merely adding to my store of facts but integrating new stuff and becoming a newer person. Humbling, but worth it.

have you read "my life with swollen appendices" by Brian Eno?

oldie but a goodie.

He once setup a pyramid in the studio. Who DOES that??
Yeah! I liked that book! — Derek

www.enoshop.co.uk/product/oblique-strategies.html

Brian Eno's deck of cards "oblique strategies"

http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/OSintro.html

There is another deck with suggestions from the world.

Tape your mouth (given by Ritva Saarikko)
Try faking it (from Stewart Brand)

OOPS, somebody already commented about oblique strategies. Yes, I knew about it way back in the 90's also. Well, I added more to that. It's interesting that he has added The Acute Strategies" which are suggestions from around the world. That is new to me. (and perhaps you)

I kept snoozing this in my gmail inbox. Glad I finally read it (and listened to it at the same time). I will re-read/listen to stimulate my own ideas for experimentation. Thanks!

..including time as a most controlling and driving force toward completion; but incompletions of one thing and then another: as well,in rigidized/mad-rushing efforts to meet self-imposed, and otherwise demanding, so-called "deadlines." Received as you suggest, life, music and the rest, an experiment, perhaps changes to expand, or at least may alter the definition and/or perception of "success" aside from failure. Or serve to release both failure and success from the obscurity and abstraction of personality and subjectivity. Who knows? ..Just another of your mindful (life-to-life) contributions...opens the mind-gate toward greater creative freedom, and pre-judgments. Thanks Derek!

Came back to re-read this. I hope to implement this in my life.

It's exciting and frightening. And vice-versa ☺

Interesting Derek....and spot on for me in places too.
Thanks Bro

Derek,

Right on as usual!

As you mention the middle ground and freedom with structure. I find that a bit of all of it works for me to keep it fresh. I have a collaboration project that all we do is experiment and write music in the moment. With produced albums, all while writing and playing in pure experimentation mode. This isn't the only way for me that it works though.

I just watched another video you were interviewed in and you talk about doing what excites you... what keeps you up at night. Focusing on this and choosing to do this makes all the difference. For music, that's what I do in a few ways. It comes down to motivation and that is doing something that excites you to write, that is something that moves you - trusting your instincts... you also mentioned from another video I just watched. That way, you find the meaning - for yourself of what works.

So, back to music - I have several ways. The first, playing my beautiful grand piano. The harmonic structure and the sound that is brings is inspiring in many ways and leads in a great way to write music.

The other, I mentioned - is collaborating through other musicians and really, it's about finding a muse that works for you. It's been a violin player and guitar player and something that music communicates well across with.

The third, is by amazing sounds that synthesizers create - those samples of just about anything, bring an instant mood, feeling - almost drawing on something inside from the past. I can write a song by hearing two notes that I play with a patch and come up with an entire song.

The last way is visual. I started writing for film and having a scene with emotion and energy that you provide another layer of feeling to - in some way, either supporting it or something entirely different.

So, that's it - many ways to find creative music paths from experimenting with many forms and ways of creating music.

Now, applying that to life... I believe there are two forms of people on the planet. Creative and not. For the creative persons, finding a path is often confusing and frustrating. Listening to someone else or what the little voice says to do in your head seldom works. You need to experiment, try and fail and figure out a path that works for you that provides a framework that you can be creative, grow, change, be creative in a whole new way and repeat the process....

Anyway, never a lack of thought when reading your insights.

I started to experiment with non-equal-tempered instruments (both western and eastern).
I met a Turkish qanun player who was also experimenting.
At that time, it had been long since F Sharp and G flat didn’t mean the same to me. On a double bass (my instrument), playing a C when there’s a B sharp on the score would just scream “out of tune”! It’s soooooooo contextual...
Well, this Turkish guy became a great friend and to this day we didn’t only keep my 35-note-per-octave system (extremely subtle ways are my thing), but moved to his bar-less, 79-notes-per-octave-Turkish-makamlar-based system.
Yet it’s not enough. We go on with every possible new thing out there.
Thanks for your timely article. My overdue book contains a lot of this and more. It’s going to be available for download next May.
Sorry for the self-promotion!
I think that what you wrote about has no end, like experimenting... so... I’m not going to write more.
We may discuss about this around my book, if you want.
Since I plan to release 4 books, who knows what a good talk may add to the already humongous amount of “stuff” I’ve written?
Gotta say your writings were extremely precious. They helped a lot and I kinda feel in debt!

This is my 2nd comment on this thread, to express my ongoing gratitude. I initially snoozed the email containing the link to this post for procrastination reasons. Now I snooze the email over and over for repeated readings/listenings. It’s always good for another boost of creativity.

Wow, Derek. I am so glad I discovered you. Namaste

I listened and read this ..... it did not resonate for some reason?

Being involved in yoga + mindfulness, this reminds me a lot of meditation. When I sit down and watch my thoughts pass without having a real intention of my practice, it can feel overwhelming like too much freedom and no focus. I have to be intentional to keep watching where my thoughts go and then bringing myself back to the present or else I feel like I am wasting time just sitting there in limbo. But when I have an anchor, like my breath, or something to keep me grounded, then the practice feels much more worthwhile and useful.

Thanks for sharing, Derek! I've had this bookmarked for a while to read but finally was able to dig into during quarantine. Hope you are well!

Hi Derek,

Just to say I read your book and I liked it.

Simple and nice.

I agree with you in many things and inspires me for the future.

All the best
Juan

So good. So motivating. So much honesty. Art is what art does. Creations are fertilized. Sold ancient rule ism’s. What are you worth what they will pay. Keep durations long———

Playing an instrument, making music. That’s the experiment. Making the right brain the master again, the left brain it’s emissary. Because in this crazy world it’s usually the opposite.

I had written so much but I have an old old laptop. It decided to switch to a page I am reading months Now, I do not feel like writing all that again...

I will just say Miles Davis and the songwriter that wrote Wichita Lineman.
Rules were changed by both of them....I am learning still about my software I use to write music....I wrote a song from a dream and to me it sounded
G O O D. Well, when I submitted it for a contest I found out it was not written well based on musical structure....Someone told me I do not know how you could sing that song....Even though, to me the song was GREAT it was not written musically wrong. So, I went back painfully and reassign the keys.. No, it didn't sound the say but I had to go back and change every song I've written... Tell me if that's not a pain. No, because there only a few songs I've written that are in my software....hahahahahahaha.

Life is the same for me unless its just someone else's opinion with facts. Give your comments all you want. I ain't listening my ears are close....Case in point, I always wanted to sing like ? ? ? But to me I had no soul when I sang....Well, some 20 + years I sung a very soulful song. A guy said his words and I did see the need to replay to trash. Oh, if after someone says something I think about it if there statement is factual I will change....I more likely forgot the facts behind the statement....

Anyway, let me post this before this laptop do its own thang because its old....But it works that why I keep it since my desktop is out of commission..
Because of this old laptop I have some great videos I uploaded to YouTube. hahahahaha Even had to use this old laptop to make videos since my old video software went out....A pain as it was I have another option that would not have learned about if Magix had not gone out....hahahahaha Learning in life and in music..

Have a great day Derek you and your family.

Sincerely,
Paula Benson

Ps.... Maybe, you have kept up the changes with CDBABY. Guess who owns it now....You talking about changes in life and music....(smile)